Miller-Sabatine Graduation Party, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania 1977

Larry Fink made this gelatin silver print, "Miller-Sabatine Graduation Party, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania", sometime in the last century. It's a slice of life, you know? The kind of moment that feels both incredibly specific and totally universal. The high contrast is so striking, like a punch in the gut. The way the light catches the faces, the textures of the skin, the almost aggressive intimacy of the composition... it's all so raw. There's a guy in the foreground, staring right at us with this bemused expression. And then there's the other guy, leaning in with a knife, like he's about to cut the cake or maybe something else entirely. It's unsettling, right? Fink reminds me a little bit of Diane Arbus, in the sense that both artists make you think about the way we look at other people, and the stories we tell ourselves about them. It's not always pretty, but it's always real. And that's what makes it so compelling.